When Job Prayed for His-friends 1985

I'd like to read from the last chapter of Job, Job chapter 42, just reading part of verse 10. And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends. Since the first of the year, we've been responding to what many of us are convinced is the word of the Spirit of God to the body of Christ at this hour.

A word contained in Isaiah chapter 60, the first three verses, arise, shine, for your light has come, speaking to the body now, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the people, but the Lord shall arise upon you and his glory will be seen upon you and nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. There is a work of the Spirit going on in the body of Christ at this hour, which we did not initiate, which we certainly do not deserve and which we do not control.

Your life has come, the glory of the Lord has risen upon you, and the result of this visitation of the Spirit to the body all over the earth is that in the midst of spreading darkness, chaos, confusion, and worldwide danger, at a time when a world system which has defied God and blasphemed God's holiness in a thousand ways is beginning to reap what it sowed, multitudes of people are turning from the darkness and running for refuge to the only light there is, the only light that's left, the only light there ever was really, and wherever that light is shining, they're going to come. And if that light is shining here, they're going to come here. If it isn't, they're going to just stampede right over us like they did in Belgium and run off to where the light is.

We don't have to develop some new technique, we don't have to promote, we don't have to advertise. All we have to do is let that light shine, and that light does its own work, it has its own impact. Now, we've noticed how this worked in the life of our Lord at the point where he became baptized.

At his baptism, around the age of 30, Jesus steps out of the shadows. And he begins now to have an impact on the nation of Israel. He begins to speak and manifest the kingdom of God.

And multitudes of people respond before Israel sinks into oblivion as a nation. We see the same thing happen on Pentecost when the believers who have been hiding in the upper room behind closed doors, throw open the doors and fall out into the city. And begin to manifest the kingdom of God and proclaim the word very clearly, multitudes come to this light before the city of Jerusalem, where it all began, sinks under the judgment of God.

In the same way, if the city of Detroit or wherever we happen to be, if the city of Detroit is to feel the impact of the kingdom of God, if it is to know that the spirit of the Lord is moving through its streets, calling people to account, offering them hope and warning them of a God who is sifting the wheat from the chaff. If we are to have the power to awaken people so that they come to their senses and begin to stir and think and repent and enter the kingdom, we don't need a new technique. All we need to do is cooperate with the light which is now being given to us.

Either we cooperate with that light or that light just moves on. Now we don't have to know, it's not our privilege to know the times and seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority. We don't have any idea why there are seasons of darkness and seasons of blinding light.

But when the light comes, as it has come, it's our responsibility to move with it, fit into it, obey it. Because every season of light is followed by a season of judgment. And the first people to be judged are the people with the light.

Judgment begins at the household of God. Joel could tell us something about judgment. He went through a season of dark days as few men on earth ever have.

After a long period of prosperity and peace, suddenly this man is visited by desolation. Easy enough to believe in God when your kids are doing fine, the money's coming in, your health is perfect, everybody thinks you're great. But now suddenly his children are killed, his possessions are stripped from him, his health is ruined, his reputation is sullied and smeared, his wife counsels him to curse God and die.

His friends come to him and advise him to repent for sins he never committed, accuse him of having done things he never did. Somehow this man, Joel, hangs in through it all, through long, long, long periods, days, months, perhaps years of awful, awful anguish. Then one day it ends.

The anguish is over. His trial is finished. Arise, sighing, Joel, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you And the Joel who rose out of this desolation was the forerunner of the risen Messiah.

And the life Joel lived after his time of darkness was a supernatural, a blessed, a redemptive, a healing, resurrection life. Reading from Joel chapter 42, starting at the first verse, after God has given him, talked to him pretty hard. Then Joel answered the Lord, I know that thou canst do all things and that no purpose of thine can be thwarted.

You asked, who is this who obscures my counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have offered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me which I did not know. You said, hear and I will speak. I will question you and you declare to me.

Well, I heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. After the Lord had spoken these words to Joel, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, my wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken to me what is right as my servant Joel has.

Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Joel and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering. My servant Joel shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly, for you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Joel has. So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Namathite went and did what the Lord had told them and the Lord accepted Joel's prayer and the Lord restored the fortunes of Joel when he had prayed for his friends and the Lord gave Joel twice as much as he had before.

Now just as Joel coming up out of his desolation is the forerunner of the risen Jesus, he is also a type of the body of Christ on the earth at this hour. As we watch Joel coming up out of the shadows, up out of those terrible dark days, we are looking at God lifting up out of the dark days which have nothing to do with his but darken up. And we learn from Joel, but we will, how to arise and shine, how to do that.

We notice that as God lifts up Joel's head, raises him from the dust, shines with glory upon and within him and around him, Joel doesn't just sit there and bask in it, he does something. He acts, he is aggressive. Three things this man does if we notice in this passage.

First of all, he worships God. Second, he repents of his attitude of complaining. And third, he prays for these friends who have wronged him and who are now under the judgment of God.

First thing he does is worship. Then Joel answers the Lord, I know that thou canst do all things and that no purpose of thine can be thwarted. You said, who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge? Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me which I did not know.

He could do all things. Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Jesus teaches us to begin that prayer that he gives us with worship.

May your name be hallowed by me. May your name be praised. May it be worshiped and honored.

You can do all things. No purpose of yours can be thwarted, oh God. When the trouble first hit Joel, his response was worship.

The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And now when the Lord comes and raises him out of the dust, again his response is worship.

The hour is coming and now is when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such to worship him. The Spirit of the Lord is looking all over the earth, trying to find some people who are not worshiping the golden image of Nebuchadnezzar, but the living God. And no people will have an impact on any place where they are if it doesn't begin in their hearts with worship.

Forget about all the good things we're going to do for other people. Forget all about how we're going to impress them and how we're going to convert them and do this and that. We're going to do nothing until we first of all serve God.

Our first service was for our Lord himself. Worship of the Father. Worship.

The offering up of our lives. The presenting of our bodies as living sacrifices. Speaking in praise and thanksgiving.

Saying, as Job said, with his mouth, Behold, you are Lord. I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. And to say such things.

Worship God in the midst of a world which is rebelling. Right in the middle of Babylon which is blaspheming God. To do this openly and consistently, continuously, to be worshiping him.

When the whole world is going the other way, everybody's bowing down to the golden image and you're out of step because you're worshiping the true and living God. Worship. Worship is what we give ourselves to.

The thing that takes your thought, your energy, the thing you give yourself to is what you're worshiping, not just what our mouths say. And to worship him in spirit and in truth so that what we live out there when we go through the door is consistent with what we're saying in heaven. Worship.

Worship. That's the call of God to us. We've only become, we haven't even scratched the surface of what it means to worship him.

Second thing we see about Job is that he repented of all his complaints. You said, Hear and I will speak. I will question you and you declare to me.

Well, I heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. Now righteous Job didn't have as much to repent of, no doubt, as we do.

This man had lived a righteous life and he was vindicated by God and yet this man repented. He repented of his attitude of complaining. He stopped his mouth, stunned by a vision of such glory and wonder that he bows in silence before God and despises himself in comparison with his glory.

This happened with every prophet, you know, Isaiah. Woe is me, I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips.

I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. There's a repentance going on. Well, by comparison, we do have some things to repent of.

We are not righteous Job. And we have carried in our hearts, if we're honest, attitudes of complaining, particularly attitudes of complaining, which have distorted and warped and twisted and blocked vision of God. Any sense of what God is showing us or saying to us.

In his mercy, God has broken through all that. And he says, take another look at my son hanging on that cross for you. Forget about all you're going to do for everybody else.

Look at this, see what's happening. This man's hanging on there for you. Take another look at my son risen from the dead, the firstborn of the new creation, alive, never to die again, ruling now on this in heaven and earth for you.

How can we look at that glory and that holiness and still go walking around, whimpering and sniveling about how hard we have it. The time has come for us to repent of our complaining. All of it.

This is the day to take the spirit of complaining, always complaining. This isn't right. And that's not right.

If only my wife were this way, if only my husband were that way, if only they did this, if only they would do that, if only God would do this and this and this. Lay it all down at the foot of the cross and repent. Be still before him and worship in subordination.

Finally, Job prayed for his friends who by wronging him were under the judgment of God. Now, therefore, take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly, for you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has.

And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends. These men were under the judgment of God because they had misrepresented God and because they had falsely accused Job. And Job could have said, as we often do, in our hearts at least, sirs am right, let them rot in hell.

Let them taste a little anguish for a change. But no, Job is to pray for these men. And as he prays for these men who have wronged him, they are forgiven and he is restored.

For the Lord shall arise upon you and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. And these nations who come to your light and these kings who come to the brightness of your rising have not been very nice.

They've been giving us a hard time. They've bad-mouthed us. They've belittled us.

They've laughed at us. They've abused us. Now they come to us for help.

Yes, we pray for them. We pray for these people who have wronged us. And as we pray for them, they are healed and we are restored.

Look in the next short while for people to come back into your life that you had hoped you would never have to look at again. People who have been nothing but grief. Every time they came, it was trouble and heartache.

Why are they coming back into my life, Lord? So that you can pray for them. And as you pray for them, they will be forgiven and you will be restored. As God raises us from the dead, not just us here, but the body of Christ all over the place, including us, raises us from the dead as he raised Job from the dead.

Today, he is calling for three things, specific things from us. Worship, first of all. Worship.

To repent of our preoccupation with ourselves and all the service we've given to the golden image of Nebuchadnezzar and give ourselves afresh with an act of the will. Worship to him with our mouths, our bodies, our lives, our everything. Second, he is calling for us to repent of our complaining.

This is the day for the complaining spirit in every single one of us here to be laid to rest. If it would help you, kneel at the rail and stick it right down there at the foot of the cross. Whatever it will help you to do, but do it.

Don't walk out of here with that spirit still alive in you. Repent. And thirdly, he's calling us to pray for the people he is and will be sending into our lives who have wronged us.

And we should begin, I think it would be helpful for us to begin now in silence as God brings to our minds specific people who have really hurt us, done us harm, to lift them up before his throne and ask him to absolutely shower them with rich, lasting, wonderful blessing. Not show them how long they are, just bless them, bless them. And the Lord restored the fortunes of when he had prayed for his friends.

Let's just take some silence now, total silence, and let the Lord move in our hearts and let's be doing some interceding in our hearts for the very ones that have given grief to our lives.